Who is the ChiefHomeOfficer?

YOU are - or anyone who works from home. Whether you're a full-time 1099er, a corporate teleworking W-2er, a part-time eBayer, or any head-of-household handling family, finances and affairs from a corner desk - and in search of a little balance in the home office, then ChiefHomeOfficer's your destination.
Think of Chief Home Officer.com as LifeHacker meets the home office - no matter what home office you run. Entrepreneurs will discover SOHO 2.0 business insight. Teleworkers will learn leading-edge remote work strategies. will spot tips, tales and links on balance. And those considering making the leap into home officing will unearth equal parts reality and validation. Explore. Learn. Return.

The SOHO Sherpa…

ChiefHomeOfficer is your SOHO Sherpa - a guide to all the things that make the Small Or Home Office (SOHO) work. Since 1993, we've chronicled the work-at-home adventure. Today, the site offers honest and occasionally humorous insights, tips, tech/product reviews, and commentary that cut through the "Make Millions From Home" promise and just lay down the real skinny on a lifestyle people can work and live with.

Want to learn more? If you work from home, want to, or are a corporate marketer hoping to talk to those who do, email jeff [at] chiefhomeofficer dot com.

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Extreme weather, from flooding to wildfires to other natural disasters, has become an issue on the minds of many — especially small business owners. Even accidental fire and flood can cause permanent damage. Many every day events put every business at risk of loss of files, documents or precious, irreplaceable data.

Sentry Safe Guardian Storage Box

In this guest column, Bill Buchko, a product manager at SentrySafe for the Fire-Resistant Safe and File business, highlights the vulnerabilities home officers and small business owners face — and how to try to prevent them.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, water damage and freezing pipes have contributed to more than 20% of all insurance claims in past years. Small water pipe leaks inside walls can go undetected for months, but a 1/8 inch crack could release up to 250 gallons of water a day, making it a real threat to small businesses.

The U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Incident Reporting System reported that from 2005-2009, local fire departments responded to an estimated 115,500 structure fires in non-residential properties per year, resulting in more than $3.1 billion in direct property damage.

Losing client files can often lead to considerable business disruption resulting in significant business loss. Damaged documents can also lead to the default of many business contracts. In the event of such disasters, business owners need to protect their company’s valuable assets as much as possible.

In spite of these statistics, many small business owners are still putting critical business records in the basement of their office or other unprotected places. Current fire and water file solutions are heavy and expensive. Most put off the decision to purchase these due to their expense and inconvenience.

Business owners need an easy-to-use, low-cost solution that will provide them with protection from threats such as flooding and fire so their critical business records are not vulnerable to the elements.

Products like the SentrySafe Guardian Storage Box provide third-party verified fire and water protection. Stackable and weighing only 20 pounds, this device offers all the benefits of traditional file boxes with more convenience.

Finding a protective storage solution that fits the needs of their business is a challenge business owners should overcome before disaster strikes and the obstacles become insurmountable.